


Minashigo (Kiyohiro Route)

by Shinnichi666



Category: Samurai Love Ballad: PARTY
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-05-25
Packaged: 2020-03-17 08:00:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18961138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shinnichi666/pseuds/Shinnichi666
Summary: In this route, Mitsunari finds Sakura when he’s still living at the temple; and she ends up with Kiyohiro.





	1. Part 1

Minashigo (Temple) pt. 1 (Kiyohiro)  
Mitsunari   
I’m watching this terrified little girl as she sits in the far corner of the room, shaking like a leaf. One of the priests went to find a doctor of western medicine to not only treat her many wounds, but we’re hoping he can also translate for us. She’s obviously been terribly abused and starved.   
I found her digging through the refuse bin, trying to eat any last bits of food she could get. When I approached her she jumped to her feet and ran from me. She’s so malnourished, she soon fell to her knees, putting almost no distance between us. When I ran to her, she tried to get up again but her sheer terror made her body shake too much to get very far and she fell again, this time with a sickening crunch. Despite having clearly broken her left leg, which dented inwards, she didn’t scream. She just kept trying to get away from me, even as I pleaded for her to stop, “Don’t run! I’m not going to hurt you! I want to help you! Please, stop!” She obviously doesn’t understand Japanese. I caught up to her and tried to communicate with her through my body language but, as soon as I reached for her hand, she kicked me and tried to run again. She lifted herself onto her feet and hobbled along, still trying desperately to get away from me. She fell again and I knelt in front of her, trying to show her I meant no harm. I guess the combination of malnutrition and fear was too much, because she went from shaking and staring at me with wide eyes, to suddenly closing her eyes and collapsing in a heap, completely limp. Sighing, I picked her up and took her to the washing well. She reeked of sweat, trash, and human filth. What the hell happened to you, Little One?   
The head priest, Motako, came over, “Mitsunari, I heard you found a little girl.” I looked up and bowed, “Yes, I think she broke her leg. Ashiya went to get a doctor.” He nodded and knelt down on her other side to help me as I started washing her and gagged at the smell as I started to remove her tattered, filthy clothes. I knew there was no saving them, so I threw them in the trash heap as he helped clean her and sent another priest to get her a set of clean clothes. When I removed the remnants of her shirt, we saw she had a necklace with two pieces of shiny iron, shaped like hammers. They had a beautiful design on each face. Her thighs were bruised and covered in blood and her groin was blue, purple, and yellow— bruises in various stages of healing. I shook my head as I cleaned her dirty body and asked, “Who could treat a child like this?” He sighed as he washed her hair, “Humans are capable of infinite good and kindness, or infinite evil and cruelty. Her life has obviously been filled with the latter.”   
We turned her over to check her back and gasped. She has dozens of welts and gashes on her back. She even has burns— one of which is the symbol worshipped by those missionaries who speak of someone named Christ. The priest shook his head as a younger priest arrived with clean clothes, “Humans can be very cruel.” Another burn was a design I’d seen on expensive foreign fabrics. When I had finally washed away all the dirt, grime, excrement, and sweat, I started to dress her in bedclothes but she woke up as I reached to tie the belt. She kicked me away and tightly wrapped the robe around herself as she used her right leg to push herself away from me.   
The other priest finally returned with the physician and the girl started rocking back and forth. He tried saying something to her but she didn’t seem to understand him, so he looked at her for a moment before lifting his bag and showing her the emblem on it. She stopped shaking and relaxed her legs, then let him go to her. As he examined her body, I asked why showing her a winged staff with two snakes winding around it helped. He explained, “That’s the Rod of Caduceus, it’s a symbol for medicine throughout Europe and even many parts of Northern Africa. I just showed her that I’m a doctor and mean no harm... yeah, this is a nasty break.” He beckoned me to get closer and she inhaled and started shaking again. He placed a hand on her shoulder and did a strange hand gesture, then she calmed down. The doctor told me to hold a couple sticks by her shin, then he wrapped her entire lower leg in a heavy bandage before taking a thick bamboo culm which was split down the middle and then he closed it around the leg and tied the pieces together. The girl looked up at all of us and shrank back in fear. Aoi came into the room and sneered, “So, this is the little trespasser?” Motako looked at him and replied, “Aoi, while she is, technically, an uninvited guest, she is hardly a threat of any kind. She obviously has no ill intent, look at her. She’s so malnourished, she broke her leg with a very short, simple fall.” The doctor added, “You needn’t worry. She can’t do any harm even if she wanted to do so.” Motako asked the doctor what he meant and the doctor nodded at her, “As you said: she’s starving. If her brain doesn’t get a lot of sugar right away, she’ll die in a couple days, anyway. She might not even have that long.” Something about her appearance must’ve tugged at Aoi’s heart strings because he sighed and pulled out a flask of his candies and handed it to me, “These are basically just big clumps of sugar. I can’t think of a faster way to get sugar to her brain.” I thanked him and poured a few pieces of candy into my palm and held them out to her. She slowly reached her hand to mine, then took the sweets and tossed them into her mouth before I could even see her pull her hand back. I poured out a few more and she ate them right away, too.   
She fell asleep right after the doctor finished treating her. He put his index finger over his lips and motioned for us to follow him. When we got outside the room, he closed the door and sighed, “I don’t know how or from where she escaped, but she cannot go back. If she does, she’ll be subjected to a fate worse than death.” I asked what he meant and he explained, “Those burns on her shoulders? The crucifix is the symbol of the Church, as you probably know. The other one is known as the fleur de lis— a French symbol of the aristocracy. The aristocrats purchase children to be slaves and the ones who are supposed to service the masters are branded with the fleur de lis. She was branded with the cross, probably because she was born to a Pagan woman. Those burns mean she will never be safe anywhere the Church has a foothold.” I asked why she’d be here and the doctor said, “I heard about a French aristocrat who is spreading the teachings of the Bible here in Japan. She was probably sent to service him.” Motako asked the doctor, “Wait, how old is she, anyway?” The doctor twisted his lips, “Best guess, based on height and skeletal growth... maybe four or five... six, tops.” Ashiya sighed sadly as he looked at her, “Imagine your first sexual encounter being as a five year old slave to some strange man in a foreign country.” The doctor looked even more uncomfortable than before and I asked, “What now?” He scratched the back of his head as he awkwardly answered, “She’s... already started being broken.” He continued when he saw our blank expressions, “Sex slaves are thought of as wild horses and need to be broken. Sometimes, if the girl is a virgin... men are paid to... make sure she’s not going to fight back... they do this by starving, beating, whipping, and...” the doctor trailed off and I finished his sentence, “They rape the girls.” He closed his eyes and nodded. I looked at Motako, “We can’t send her back to that life. It’s a miracle she’s alive at all.” Motako sighed and said, “Yes, sending her back... it would be kinder to just behead her.” He paid the doctor and I thanked him just before going back into my chambers. Ashiya came in, sat down beside me, and the two of us watched her sleep, occasionally dabbing a damp towel on her forehead and cheeks to cool her and clean away the sweat. Her eyebrows scrunched as her lips contorted in pain as she began to sweat and whimper. Ashiya asked me, “Are you sure you can do this? Taking care of a traumatized, sick five year old girl is a lot of work, especially for a sixteen year old man. It’ll require a lot of time, love, patience, and attentiveness.” I turned to him, “So, because it’ll be hard, she should just be tossed to the side of the road to die?” He looked offended, “I never said that! I was simply asking if you understand the job you’re taking.” I sighed, “I know. Forgive my outburst. I know it’ll be hard, but she deserves to be safe and happy. I won’t change my mind.” He smiled and gave me a pat on the shoulder, then went to bed. I stayed awake a little while longer, just watching her and thinking about how terrified she must’ve been to see me chasing her.   
I was awoken by her crying and dipped the towel on her forehead into the cool water, then dabbed away the sweat and rinsed it again. When I replaced the towel, her expression softened a little bit and she quieted down. I fell asleep again and woke a little while later to repeat the process.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mitsunari realizes just how strong Sakura is; and just how much her abuse affects her, even on a subconscious level.

Minashigo (Temple)   
Mitsunari   
It’s been a couple weeks and she is slowly becoming more comfortable with me. She still has a lot of trust issues, but that’s to be expected. I’ve been teaching her Japanese and she is actually picking it up quite well. She’s very bright and inquisitive. Her curiosity is refreshing and her ability to correctly infer conclusions is astounding. For example, the other day I set out a couple dozen items and corresponding name cards to help her study. The cards were not beside the item named because I still had to get an ink stone and brush. By the time I got back, all but three of the cards were in the correct spots beside the object they named. I hadn’t taught her half of those twenty-four words! I looked at her in curiosity and she looked down at the floor, as though apologizing. I knelt down and placed a gentle hand on her knee to get her attention, then asked her, “Did you do that yourself?” She nodded and apologized. I chuckled, “Don’t be sorry, that’s incredible! You’re a very bright girl.”   
One day, when her leg was healed enough to move, I took her to the cherry trees nearby. They were just blossoming and I thought she’d like to see something calming and serene for a change. Her eyes grew wide when she saw them and I saw her smile for the first time since I found her. I started telling her about them and she looked so happy, I decided to call her Sakura. She has really beautiful eyes. They’re always piercing and, when I saw her smile, the entire grove seemed brighter. She liked the name and we stayed in the grove for a while longer before going back to the Temple. She started limping as she held my hand and I asked if she was okay. She nodded, focusing too much on not complaining to speak. I told her, “You don’t have to lie. I won’t think less of you.” She turned away and I sighed, then picked her up and carried her on my hip. She leaned her head against my shoulder and fell fast asleep.   
When I returned to the Temple, Ashiya greeted me with a grin and started teasing me, “Aww, look at Mitsunari and his little girl.” Aoi giggled as I laid Sakura down in her futon and tucked her in. She snuggled in and sighed softly as she got comfortable. I stroked her hair and kissed her forehead, then left the room.  
I gently woke her for dinner and asked if she wanted to eat at the castle because there was a feast for the beginning of bon odori. She yawned and nodded, then I helped her get dressed. She sat beside me, quietly eating her dinner. Her manners are impeccable and she makes a point of being very quiet while she eats, which is rather shocking for a girl who has spent her first five years of life starving. Shortly before the trays were cleared away for dessert, she tugged on my sleeve, her subtle way of telling me she had to go to the bathroom. I nodded and excused us for a moment, then took her down the corridor to the lavatory and waited for her outside the door. Afterward, I had her sitting in my lap as we ate dessert and noticed she’d fallen asleep in my arms, so I took her to bed and returned to the feast.  
Later that night, after returning from the feast, I walked into my chambers to see she wasn’t there. Even her bedding was gone. I panicked and ran out to the courtyard, only to find her by the well, furiously scrubbing her bedding as she cried and shivered. Letting out a sigh of relief, I went over to her and scolded her, “Sakura! How many times have I told you don’t go outside alone at night?!” Her shoulders heaved as she looked down and I noticed what she was doing. I sighed and asked her, “Did you wet the bed again? Is that why you’re out here?” She looked up at me with tears streaming down her cheeks as she desperately apologized and tried to hide her bedding, “I’m sorry, Papa! I didn’t mean to do it!” I sighed again as I bent down and scooped her up, “I know you didn’t do it on purpose, Sakura. Nobody does. I was just worried is all. Come, let’s get you warmed up before you get sick.” Her tears poured as I helped her into clean clothes and held her in my arms by the hearth to warm up. She cried into my chest as I held onto her and stroked her hair. She eventually fell back to sleep and I put her in my bed, got changed, and climbed into bed beside her. She curled up to me and I felt her fall into a deep sleep, not moving a muscle except to breathe.  
The next morning, I had her reading while I cleaned her bedding, and Motako came up to me. He sat down and asked about it, “Did Sakura wet the bed again?” I nodded, “She’s very young, I figured it would happen from time to time.” He remained silent and, after a moment, I spoke again, “What’s weird, and admittedly good, is that she doesn’t do that when she sleeps in my bed.” He sighed, “That’s not surprising. Most children with her past have that problem. They have these recurring nightmares in which they relive their traumas and it scares them so much, they lose control of their bodies.” Knowing that it is because of the horrors of her life, I am even less inclined to be upset about it. I asked him, “Is there anything I can do to help her so she’s not so scared?” He thought for a bit, then pondered our loud, “You said she doesn’t do that when she sleeps in your bed? She obviously feels safe with you. Maybe, if she had something in her bed to remind her that you are close by, she’d feel a little less anxious. Maybe if you gave her your blanket or pillow or something. Perhaps if you get her a stuffed animal to remind her of you. The best thing would be something with your scent. It’s the scent she’s associated with protection and comfort. I still wouldn’t try to make her sleep in a different room, though. That would be too traumatic.” I nodded again as I hung her bedding to dry, and decided to find some way to get my scent into her bed.


End file.
